The Study

Live it Up!

Marketing is a beautiful enigma, isn't it? One of the biggest challenges of being a self-published author is being a successful self-marketer. There are so many options, avenues, platforms, media...some of them free, some of them costly, all of them time-consuming, none of them guaranteed.

What's a writer to do?

When folks ask me for my best piece of marketing advice, I hand over this little nugget of gold:

Get yourself into some live events.

Book signings? Yep, do those. Release parties? Of course! Live lit readings? Get on the list! Speaking engagements? Seek them out! Conferences and conventions? Snag a table! As an indie author, nothing sells books better than you selling your books. When readers and prospective buyers get to see, touch, and smell your book (oh, it happens) and hear your passion for the tales you've crafted, marketing magic happens.

And live events are tons of fun to boot.

In fact, I'll be putting my money where my mouth is this weekend by taking up residence at the Dapper Press table at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2). I'll be joined by two of our Dapper authors, blossoming indie success story Jordon Quattlebaum (author of the Breakdown serial) and honest-to-goodness immortal being and vampire Alexios (author of Walking Through the Wreckage). We're going to sell books. We're going to sell Dapper services. We're going to give away candy. We're going to give away free short stories. We're going to collect some email addresses. And we're going to have an unreasonable amount of fun.

What live events can you get yourself into in order to sell your work? Are there good conferences or conventions nearby? A great indie bookstore that would love to have a local author event? A local watering hole that'd love to host a live lit event on Tuesday nights? Get out there an explore your options!

And if you want to follow along with our event shenanigans this weekend, find Dapper Press on Instagram! (Conveniently enough, we're username @DapperPress.)